The Player's Process- NFL

                                                                  Source: Sports Illustrated


The economic principle I’m exploring is Because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.


 My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How should NFL teams allocate scarce resources like payroll & draft picks to maximize their profitability & chances of winning?"

 The article published in Bleacher Report titled How NFL Teams Determine a Player's Value demonstrates this economic principle by showing a player's value, the process in which it happens, and the personnel it is decided by.

 First, the article begins by talking about how the NFL market works. They begin by talking about free agents, stating how every year there are a bunch of them and teams must decide who and how they are going to choose free agents. A player is graded by multiple people throughout the process and given a beginning grade by the scouts. Here is a snippet of text showing how this process works, "Purely on talent, a player may receive a red scouting grade and be a major target in free agency. But once the medical reports are added into the total picture, that player may end up with a green overall grade. This is typically where fans use their heart over their head.” I believe that a player should not only be graded by the stats he has but how well he can fit into different systems. If he cannot switch to a different system, he would not be as valuable to me as one who can as shown by the Patriot's system.

 Second, the article focuses on the personnel used in the process of grading and acquiring these players. The process starts when free agency begins, there scouts determine what type of players that they need for the upcoming season. After the scouts do this, they then hand it over to more scouts who go through more film. Then the medical staff looks at players, figuring out their injury history and what has happened to them overtime, this will also affect a player's grade. The process is stated in the article saying,"Once all of these grades are compiled and stacked, the team will bring the general manager, head coach and positional coaches together and watch the top five to 10 players the organization will target in free agency. Again, with so many different opinions, the stacking order can change greatly.”

Finally, it goes to management, where the final 5 to 10 players are watched and graded until finally they decide whether or not to give them a contract. The decision on signing a player is made by many different people and is opinion based therefore a player's grade can be changed at any time. The hardest thing to do in the NFL is drafting players because you never know if they are going to be a hit or miss. Once a team figures out how to draft good players though, they can repeat that process as the Patriots have shown ever since the great Tom Brady. 

 Third and final portion of the article talks about the process for the teams and how it all works. Every team in the league has a different strategy for this type of work and there is not one right strategy but if you do not do your job well you are in danger of losing it. The article provided some insight by saying, "The teams that find the answer have continued success. The ones that do not usually replace those staffs that got them in their current hole.”Usually, the winning teams are the ones who planned their strategy well are the ones who keep their jobs for the longest, and then there are those who do not succeed and get fired. Overall, in my opinion the most important thing in allocating resources is to make sure you have a great front office. This way you can be confident that they will be able to make good decisions when it comes to players.


 In my next blog post I will research the question: What is the most important position in the NFL?